Short night in DC, and even longer day ahead. No, I wasn't out partying . . . I think I wasn't really drinking decaf in my meetings yesterday and had to get up early this morning, with a flight back to SFO tonight.

Community College League of California:Legislative Advocate [Full-time, Sacramento, 3+ years experience] DEADLINE MARCH 13

$125,000 Irvine Leadership Awards: Do you know an innovative, effective leader who is improving California's future? Nominate him or her for a 2014 James Irvine Foundation Leadership Award at irvine.org/leadership/. Deadline: April 5, 2013.

Thereâs a package of eight bills in California moving through committees to the Senate floor. Backers of the bills say the measures regulate firearms in a smarter way than previous efforts. Two to three times as many gun-related bills have likely been introduced in the Assembly. Among them is legislation by Sacramentoâs Roger Dickinson to place a 5-cent tax on every bullet sold. The California State Board of Equalization estimates the tax would raise $49 million annually. The money would be used to expand mental-health screenings for kindergarteners through third grade. The board says 1.2 billion bullets are sold in California annually.

Another round of political musical chairs is on tap Tuesday when voters in two Southern California Senate Districts go to the polls to fill vacancies created when Democratic Sens. Gloria Negrete McLeod of Chino and Juan Vargas of San Diego resigned to take seats in Congress .

Sen. Dianne Feinstein doesnât think much of her colleague Rand Paulâs all-night filibuster of CIA nominee John Brennan, or at least some of Paulâs arguments. Lest we ascribe this to ideology, the California Democrat and the Kentucky libertarian Republican united last year in an unsuccessful battle to strip the indefinite detention provisions from the defense bill.

They held an election in California's largest city this week  more or less.
Just 16 percent of Los Angeles' registered voters cast ballots, and neither of the two leading candidates for mayor received even a third of that vote.

Officials from California's Department of Human Resources and the State Personnel Board told lawmakers today that they are analyzing how departments applied an obscure, controversial policy that allows salaried state employees to take a second part-time job in their same department and earn an hourly wage.

Some 65 percent of likely voters said they had a favorable opinion of Lee, the San Francisco-style moderate whose no-flash, consensus-building style has helped him score victories on pensions, business taxes and housing. Supervisor David Chiu - who may be squaring off against Supervisor David Campos to replace Assemblyman Tom Ammiano, D-San Francisco, who is termed out in 2014 - had a 54 percent favorable rating and 14 percent unfavorable. About 63 percent of respondents were age 50 or older, and 55 percent of those polled were homeowners in a city where about 64 percent of residents are renters, who tend to be more liberal. The vast majority - 420 - of the respondents were reached on landline phones, with only 80 reached on cell phones. Mirkarimi, who last year survived Lee's effort to remove him for official misconduct over a domestic altercation with his wife, had only a 29 percent favorable rating.

WASHINGTON -- The Senate voted Thursday to confirm John Brennan as director of the Central Intelligence Agency, ending weeks of delay as lawmakers sought access to secret Obama administration documents about the targeted killing of militants overseas and the Sept. 11 attacks that killed four Americans in Benghazi, Libya.

SACRAMENTO -- The California Senate approved a $24-million expenditure on Thursday to speed the confiscation of guns from people who have been disqualified from owning firearms because of criminal convictions or serious mental illness .

The honchos at the California Public Employees' Retirement System are in hot water again. Higher-than-expected claims and lower-than-expected returns on investments have forced the CalPERS board to raise premiums for its long-term care insurance by a whopping 85 percent.

WASHINGTON -- A sudden debate over the potential use of unmanned drones against terrorist suspects in the United States touched off a power struggle within the Republican Party Thursday, even as the Senate confirmed President Obama&rsquo;s CIA nominee after a highly publicized delay.